'I'd never been broody ... but Kris felt like the one': Dannii Minogue prepares for motherhood

The imminent arrival of X Factor judge Dannii Minogue’s first baby confirms the sea change that has taken place in her personal life since she met her British boyfriend Kris Smith two years ago. ‘I’m happier than I’ve ever been,’ she tells Annabel Rivkin

Blooming: Dannii Minogue is just weeks away from giving birth and says she is happier than ever

Dannii Minogue is softer in the flesh: less porcelain, more peach. Her baby bump is burgeoning and her skin looks amazingly smooth for a 38-year-old. That hard, alabaster look is gone and the plump-cheeked teenager that she once was is evident again. Her eyes are startling and her frame, beneath the lusciousness of her pregnancy, is delicate yet strangely statuesque, and there is a powerful sense that she is in control of the room.

For a tiny figurine of a woman, Dannii Minogue is properly alpha. When she trundles into the YOU photo shoot, a full two hours late, she leisurely pours herself a green tea and sits down to chat to her entourage while the photographer fizzes about the fading light. She is a bona fide star. And something in her knows that people will wait.

She is, this younger Minogue sister, profoundly happy. Today she is the sort of high-profile celebrity that her seven-year-old self, then appearing in myriad Australian soap operas, would have idolised. Dannii got her real break as a child starring in the entertainment show Young Talent Time, on the back of which she started recording and performing across Australia. Kylie was still on the dole when Dannii was already a household name. But then Kylie got Neighbours and Jason Donovan, while Dannii appeared to be snapping away at her elder sister’s heels in the less popular soap Home and Away.

There she met the then Australian prime minister’s son, Nip/Tuck actor Julian McMahon, and married him, aged 23, in 1994. The marriage ended two years later amid rumours of his infidelity, and she found herself devastated and so broke that she posed for Australian Playboy (‘I was in debt and the Playboy thing landed on my table when I needed it,’ she says. ‘But I found it very liberating – even my granny called to tell me I looked beautiful’). She recorded some albums and had some hits, but her success was nothing compared to Kylie’s – and, of course, it was constantly compared to Kylie’s. But then Simon Cowell came knocking, shortly followed by the rugby league player turned model Kris Smith. And life changed.

'I look at Kris and go, "How did I get a guy like that?" He's gorgeous, and he's so gentle and kind,' says Danni

The Minogues are Melbourne-based, and the last time I talk to Dannii
she is calling me from her parents’ house, having just flown in from
London. She is seven and a half months pregnant – the baby is due
mid-July – and under strict instructions to stay put. ‘It’s quite nice
to be under doctor’s orders because I’m ready to start winding down
anyway,’ she says. ‘I’m getting kind of big and my energy levels aren’t
quite the same so it’s nice to be able to say, “No, the doctor says I
can’t.”’ Actually, she appeared as a judge on Australia’s Got Talent
until early this month, saying she enjoyed the chance to dress up once
a week, go to work and feel like herself.

She and Kris have recently bought a house in Melbourne near her parents and her elder brother Brendan, a cameraman (she also has a flat in London). But the house is not ready yet, so they are staying with her parents in the hope that everything will be done by the time the baby arrives.

The couple met in the summer of 2008 at Space nightclub in Ibiza. ‘We kept looking at each other but I would never have gone up to him and he would never have come up to me,’ she says. ‘Then my friend chatted to him and involved me in the conversation and it happened straight away. It was just all there from the beginning. Cupid’s arrow flew across Space nightclub – it’s so unlikely.’

Kris, a phenomenally handsome Manchester-born hunk who can now be see alongside Dannii, Twiggy, V V Brown and Lisa Snowdon in the M&S summer campaign, is downstairs cooking Dannii vegetarian paella as we speak. ‘He’s so cute,’ she says. ‘I look at him and go, “How did I get a guy like that?” He’s gorgeous, and he’s so gentle and kind and incredible with kids.’ She says that she doesn’t know whether or not she and Kris will marry, but I sense that she would like to really settle with him, despite the lingering burn of her divorce in 1996, and also the breakdown of her engagement to racing driver Jacques Villeneuve in 2001.

Dannii models one of the dresses from her Project D collection

‘Most of the kids I grew up with had parents who were divorced and, for them, that was normal,’ she says. ‘My parents [Ron, an accountant, and Carol, a former dancer] stayed together, so I always thought that was how it was going to be. But I completely stuffed it up. I have seen Julian but we are not friends. It was too much of a big ending. Too hard for me.’

It was Kris who really wanted a baby. Dannii, though delighted now, was not one of those women who saw children as a non-negotiable part of her future. ‘I just never thought it was something I would do,’ she says. ‘I had never been broody. No clock was ticking. And I would never have wanted to do it unless I was in the right relationship. He felt like the one.’ Kris’s desire for children and adoration of her in her pregnant state has helped Dannii feel confident as both a woman and an expectant mother.

‘Kris loves me pregnant and that’s a big, big help. You do have hormonal days and I think if anything was said that left me thinking, “What did he mean by that?” it might have got to me. But he is loving every minute of it,’ she says. ‘And I’m not scared, I’m so excited. I think that’s because Kris is going to be brilliant. He’s changed nappies before and I haven’t, not even my nephew’s. My brother said to me, “It’s nappy-changing time. Don’t you think you should give this a go?” I said, “Absolutely not. All yours. Your child.”’

‘On the X Factor you’re happy, you’re sad, you love each other, you hate each other – it’s all or nothing, and what you see is what you get’

Dannii’s pregnancy has raised more comparisons with her older, breast cancer-conquering sister. ‘The first child – my brother’s – was born at the end of Kylie’s chemo [in 2006] and for us, as a family, it has a whole different meaning. It was like a regeneration for us. Someone asked me recently, “Is your sister jealous?” I said, “My sister is alive. Alive.” This is all very recent for us. She has not yet had her five-year all-clear. I felt, when my brother had children, that they were part of me as well.’ Kylie, who is running around the world promoting a new album, is poised to hop on a plane to Melbourne as soon as the baby is born.

‘She is so excited, but I don’t want her waiting around when she has work to do,’ says Dannii, who knows the sex of the baby but is keeping mum. (Kris referred to a ‘her’ in a recent interview but the couple was also spotted buying blue baby clothes, so who knows.)

Dannii will be ‘uncontactable’ for two months after the birth before returning in time for the ‘judges’ houses’ part of this year’s X Factor. People will no doubt be curious to see how she looks and how she copes – she has, like Cheryl, been prone to tears. She joined the show in 2007; the hot, girlie presence to sit alongside Sharon Osbourne, Louis Walsh and Simon Cowell. There was little love lost between her and Osbourne, and things descended into a media catfight before Sharon left the show under a bit of a cloud.

With friend and collaborator Tabitha Somerset Webb

‘I don’t like fights but it’s impossible not to get in each other’s way on that show,’ Dannii says. ‘You’re happy, you’re sad, you love each other, you hate each other – it’s all or nothing, and what you see on camera is what you get. A lot of the stuff with Sharon really upset me because I don’t like being around people when there are bad vibes going on. I’d rather sort it out.’

Of course, when the younger, decidedly lovely Cheryl Cole replaced Sharon in 2008 a style war was declared, with Cheryl winning that year through sheer doll-like perfection, but Dannii stealing the show last year with a series of glamorous gowns. ‘It’s hard on both of us, because you want to have your own vibe and do your own thing,’ she says. ‘It reminded me of the years I’ve been through with Kylie: “Who’s better? Who’s prettier? Who’s got nicer clothes?”’ The two female judges are friends and in total agreement about the horror of Cowell’s loo-brush buzz cut. ‘Me and Cheryl fought against that hair,’ she says. ‘We wondered if we could just tie Simon to a chair and cut it off.’

Danni with partner Kris Smith, and with big sister Kylie

Dannii cut her own locks into a chic little bob last year, and a thorough simplification of her style seemed to accompany that. She has developed a simple, womanly aesthetic that is both aspirational and marketable. At 5ft 2in, she has always tried to dress to elongate – ‘although there’s not much point at the moment: I’m almost as wide as I am tall’ – and understands what flatters. She has collaborated with her great friend, handbag designer Tabitha Somerset Webb, on Project D. Tabitha has the creative flair, but Dannii – while helping by way of her celebrity profile – is organisational dynamite (according to Tabitha, she e-mails to-do lists at 3am). The collection of dresses, some of which she models here, is designed to take the pain out of leaving the house in the morning.

‘I am always running from morning to evening and I’ve got to put on clothes that make me feel good. Then I can deal with everything,’ she says. ‘There is pressure for women to look good while being good at something. There are so many weird, wonderful and diverse things in my schedule, and I wanted to know that I could do them all in one of these dresses – from leaving the house at seven in the morning to a red carpet [at night] and going all day in between.’ Project D was positively received at its Selfridges launch, where Dannii poured herself (including bump) into a floor-length, stretchy, sequined evening dress and looked remarkable – a walking, talking, glowing advert for her collection.

In the future Kris and Dannii will split their time between London and Melbourne, working it out as they go along. Dannii is determined ‘not to be half-arsed’ about motherhood, Kris or her work – she is a perfectionist and she doesn’t want any area to be compromised. She finds herself, at 38, madly in love with someone who is nice to her. She is at a high point in her career, her beloved elder sister remains healthy and she is about to have a child. ‘I am happier than I have ever been,’ she says. ‘For a long time I knew I would love to share my life and my family with someone, but I never thought I would find the person.’

The heart-warming thing about all this is that it doesn’t feel like a happy ending. It feels like a happy beginning.